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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25160257">Hide and Seek (and Sleep)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Engineer104/pseuds/Engineer104'>Engineer104</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cuddling &amp; Snuggling, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Gross and in love, Married Couple, Post-Blue Lions Route (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), mention of one (1) netteflix kid but he's not that important sorry kid</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 04:40:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,486</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25160257</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Engineer104/pseuds/Engineer104</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Felix comes home late but doesn't find Annette in bed like he hoped. And so he must search when all he really wanted was to sleep.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Annette Fantine Dominic/Felix Hugo Fraldarius</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>74</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Hide and Seek (and Sleep)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i come bearing gifts of fluff. i just like writing tiny bits of married fluff sometimes, and this is probably the spiritual predecessor of the <i>other</i> "married netteflix where Felix comes home while Annette's asleep" fic though you don't actually have to have read that...but anyway, i hope you like this one!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Felix cannot find his wife, which is not unusual in and of itself when the castle is so vast and she often searches out something to do in the most unlikely parts of it, but so close to midnight she ought to be asleep in their bed (or at least in their quarters preparing for bed). Instead, rather than crawling under the covers with her after riding too long and too late in a hurry to return home to his family, for her to blindly reach for him in her sleep while he tries to press a kiss into her hair before following her, he found a cold, empty bed missing a blanket and a pillow.</p>
<p>So she’s…somewhere, or must be, he just doesn’t know where.</p>
<p>He searches Ernest’s nursery first, memories of her slumped over in a rocking chair on his mind. He already peeked in on him when he first returned, just long enough to make sure he slept well and comfortably in his crib, but didn’t think to find Annette there until after he couldn’t find her where he expected her.</p>
<p>But she’s not hidden anywhere in the shadowy nursery, and he finds no one but Ernest himself, lying in his crib clutching a plush doll that Mercedes gifted him last time she and Sylvain visited. Felix smiles, though it falters quickly because he still has no idea where Annette might be.</p>
<p>His feet carry him to the library, another frequent haunt of hers even by night, but there’s no sign left of her studying on any table or desk, all the books cleared away either by her or the librarian.</p>
<p>It’s unlikely she left the hold at all after dark, so he rules out a pile of hay in the stables - it happened…once - or nighttime gardening in the castle greenhouse or some forgotten corner in the barracks’ storeroom. He peeks into the vacant bedchamber she slept in (or, well, left some of her belongings in) when she visited Fraldarius before they married, and into the parlor with her harp tucked into a corner, before he slumps against a wall - ignoring a sleepless maid that offers him a shallow and frenzied bow before she slips past him - and sighs.</p>
<p>He rubs his eyes, tired despite the irritation and worry warring in his chest. He’s found no obvious sign Annette slept in any of the places he checked, so unless she returned to their rooms in the time he wasted searching for her, he still has no clue where she would be.</p>
<p>Unless she’s in his study.</p>
<p>Felix sags. As relieved as he is to be home, the study is his least favorite part of the castle (even after he hid away most of the personal effects his old man left behind), not least because he still finds it difficult to think of it as <em>his</em>. But the more he considers it, the more convinced he becomes that he needs to check there next.</p>
<p>Faint moonlight filters in through the window, the curtains left open and tied against the frame. He winces when the door’s hinges creak as he pushes it further open and steps inside.</p>
<p>The first thing that alerts him to someone else’s presence is the unexplainable tension that fills him. His hand falls to the hilt of his sword, an old habit more than anything useful (not that it <em>isn</em><em>’t</em> useful, he always insists to Annette), and he holds his breath, listening.</p>
<p>The soft sound of a sleeping person’s breathing reaches him. Felix walks quietly, blindly following the sound, until his eyes catch on a dark silhouette under his desk and a small, pale, loosely clenched hand poking out.</p>
<p>His heart jumps before he recognizes a hint of orange hair spilling onto a pillow - is that a…shirt she’s using as a pillowcase? - and from above a quilt. A sigh escapes him even as warmth tempers any of the surprise that seizes him.</p>
<p>Felix crouches beside Annette’s sleeping form, confused but oh so relieved he’s found her. His shoulders sag as he considers how he’ll get her to bed, if it’s worth waking her just so she can help him maneuver her out from under the desk or if it’ll be more trouble than it’s worth when she inevitably hits her head against it.</p>
<p>He rubs his own aching eyes; why must she do this to him when all he wanted to do upon returning home was hold onto her and <em>sleep</em>?</p>
<p>Well, he supposes he’ll still have that once he carries her to bed.</p>
<p>Carefully he slides a hand under her head and grabs a hold of her arm, dragging her towards him slowly, only for her to clutch the pillow and curl in on herself with a sleepy murmur.</p>
<p>Felix bites his lip to muffle a groan. But he tries again, not bothering to tug the pillow away from her, and this time, once she’s free from under the desk, he stands and slips his arms under her.</p>
<p>She settles against his chest, limp but warm and with her pillow held close. He rolls his eyes and mumbles, “I just wanted to go to bed. Why must you make this so difficult?”</p>
<p>Still, when a soft sigh escapes her and she nuzzles into his chest, he can’t help the smile tugging at his lips.</p>
<p>It’s not a long walk between the study and their quarters, and Annette is scarcely a heavy burden. He’s almost accustomed to finding her asleep in places not their bed, from the nursery to the library to, most memorably (and rather frighteningly), the kitchens. It’s become something of an amusement for the household to find the lady of the castle passed out at some late hour because she wanted to work just a little longer, but this is the first time Felix found her with a pillow and quilt and dressed for bed - as if she <em>meant</em> to sleep somewhere else.</p>
<p>The trickiest part is opening doors while carrying her, but Felix has practice in that too.</p>
<p>Annette doesn’t stir until he lays her down. She turns her head and blinks blearily up at him before squinting and mumbling, “Felix?”</p>
<p>He freezes, unsure in that moment if he’d rather undress for comfort or embrace her first, but she decides for him. Her fingers latch onto his wrist, so he fumbles to at least unbuckle his belt and unlace his boots with his free hand to kick them off before letting her drag him onto the bed.</p>
<p>She wraps her arms around his back and snuggles against his chest again, her ear over his pounding heart and her body warm against his. He sighs but drapes an arm over her, burying his fingers in her soft hair and kissing her forehead. “Why were you sleeping in the study?” he wonders.</p>
<p>For a heartbeat he thinks she’s fallen asleep again - which might make it easier to extract himself so her arm, pinned under him, won’t numb - but then her fingers bunch in his shirt and she mumbles, “Don’t like sleeping here without you.”</p>
<p>Felix wonders if it’s absurd his wife’s words can still…affect him like he’s just the lovesick fool that didn’t know the first thing about how to go about courting her. His chest warms even as it aches for the time spent apart, and he holds her closer and reassures her, “I’m here now.”</p>
<p>“But you weren’t for two weeks,” she whines. She tilts her head back to look up at him, a hint of a pout on her face. “It’s cruel to make me miss you, you know.”</p>
<p>“I know,” he says, and he does. “I’m sorry. I wish I could still take you with me.”</p>
<p>“Me too.” The slightest smile curves her lips, but her eyelids droop with sleep. “Maybe when Ernest is a little bigger? He can make friends with”—a yawn splits her jaws—”with Mercie’s children, and Dimitri’s…” She trails off and lies back, staring up at him when he props himself up on an elbow to look down at her. “’m tired, Felix.”</p>
<p>He trails a finger down the curve of her cheek before leaning down to kiss her lips. “Then go to sleep.”</p>
<p>Annette cups his jaw to keep his face close to hers, her warm breath tickling his chin. The tip of her thumb catches on his bottom lip, and she says, “If you wake up before me, don’t leave until I wake up too.”</p>
<p>Felix rolls his eyes but promises, “Fine. I won’t make you find me.” (He doesn’t bother noting the hypocrisy.)</p>
<p>“Better not,” she grumbles, and leans up one more time to press her lips to his before her eyes slip shut and her breathing evens out again.</p>
<p>He smiles, just a little, and brushes her hair away from her face before he lies down beside her and joins her.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Do not hold me accountable for any cavities attained in the reading of this fic. (My next one will not be so nice, unfortunately.)</p>
<p>I hope you liked it! Let me know what you thought! or just find me @gazelle_gazette on Twitter where i'm screaming about netteflix or any rare pair that's caught my fancy</p></blockquote></div></div>
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